The next morning everyone got up and went to eat breakfast, some staggered in later than others. Josephine crept into the kitchen/dining room area and was greeted by Carol, Sophia, Lori, Carl, Dale, Andrea and Jacqui. They were sitting around the table with a plate of bacon in front of them. Josephine was shocked at the sight and quickly grabbed a slice and shoved it into her mouth and sat down. The grease from the bacon dripped out of her mouth a little and she whipped it away with her hands and chewed, savoring every last bite of the most delicious tasting bacon she had remember to be her favorite breakfast food. She groaned quietly at how good the bacon had tasted and shook her head in satisfaction.
"Wow, I forgot how good bacon tasted," she smiled looking at Carl who was shoving pieces in fast and happily.
"There's more where that came from, and here I have eggs. They are powdered but still make 'em pretty good." A voice came out of the back of the Kitchen and T dog suddenly appeared with a frying pan filled with eggs. Josephine was in pure heaven at the breakfast before her. She and the little one were enjoying breakfast when Glenn and Daryl both made their way into the room. Daryl's face looked a bit sour and Josephine instantly knew it was the SC that made him that way. Glenn moaned and sat down, Jacqui smiled and rubbed his shoulders sympathetically.
"Ahhh, never ever let me drink again," cried Glenn staring down at his place of food in disgust.
Everyone laughed and Rick came out and Carl asked him if he was hungover too. Josephine laughed whole heartedly at her little nephew. He probably had no idea what a hangover was, let alone felt like…oh, what joy it was to be young. Then when everyone was eating Shane decided to show his face. The scratches more prominent than they had been last night when Daryl and her were in the room eating her candy bar.
"what happened to you, on your neck?" T- dog asked concerned as he pushed a plate of eggs towards Shane.
Rick then gave him a questioning glare. Shane on the other hand wouldn't look up at Rick from his seat at the table and just started plowing eggs into his mouth.
"I think I must have done it to myself in my sleep," Shane said in a slight whispered tone. Rick huffed and shook his head.
"I never seen you do that," Rick said still having his eyes pressed to his best friend, pushing for a better answer.
" Me either, its not like me at all," Shane suddenly shot a look to Lori who just stared back down at her bacon and eggs. Josephine shot a look at Daryl who smirked, knowing just as well as she did that what had happened last night, either they had gotten in a fight or they were getting it on in the game room.
Then Jenner came into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. Dale twisted in his seat, ready to say something. He told Jenner that they wanted answers and Andrea chimed in as well. They had all come here to get the questions they all were hopefully for. They wanted to know if there was some kind of cure and what needed to do to survive and they all felt Jenner would know some answers.
He told them all to follow him and they joined him and he walked out of the room, as if everyone was to follow him. Everyone got up from the table except Josephine. She was extremely nervous of what was going to be said. She feared something bad was about to happen, because why had everyone killed themselves or just up and left. Why was he the only one left? Daryl was the last one almost out the door until he realized Josephine was not behind him. He twisted around to see her playing with a piece of bacon on her plate, looking nervous and questioning as she still sat at the table. He walked over to her and smacked her gently on the arm. She looked up annoyingly.
"What?" she spat
"You comin' or what?" He asked her playfully trying to shove her from her seat at the table. She pulled away from his touch quickly. She just didn't feel like listening to a man talk about how everyone was dying and that people were too afraid to live so they just shot themselves or hung themselves in the very places they had all slept last night. She didn't want to think about bringing a baby into a wold like that. She was afraid and Daryl saw that in her face as she pushed away from his touch.
"Listen here, you need to stop bein' such a pussy." His words lingered in the air until she finally spoke.
"Whatever Daryl," She got up from the table and walked out. He watched her go, obviously upset. She knew that he was right, she needed to pull her head of of her ass and keep fighting. She couldn't stop now she could just give up she walked towards the others into a big room. She stopped as a screen in front of her suddenly lit up. She felt Daryl stop close behind her, his warmth seeming to emanate to her body. She relaxed slightly and listened to Jenner speak.
They all looked at the screen as a person's brain was showing on the giant screen. Jenner went off about the test subject TS-19 on the screen. Someone who was bitten and infected, and volunteered to let them record the process. Vi - the computer system, then showed the first section of the virus and he told us how the virus killed you. Jenner was just telling them that everyone was dying.
"Is that what happened to Jim," Sophia shot her mother a concerned look.
"Yes." was all Carol could say.
The screen suddenly showed that the virus restarted the brain stem and thats how the reanimation of the corpse transforms.
After the horrific conversation Andrea confronted him and said he knew nothing of what to do about this virus. Everyone looked horrified and scared while others still lingered in hope. Josephine sat down in a chair and looked at Jenner.
"So, there is nothing… anywhere? Everywhere is like this place, and nobody knows what the hell is going on?" She put her hands on her head and waited for his response but he said nothing. The silence said it all. They were all screwed.
Jacqui slung down in a seat beside her closing her eyes, obviously taking it what was going on. That was it, they had ran out of options on what to do. All there was left is just to survive and wait until you die like the rest of them. It wasn't ideal of course, everyone wished this would be the place of safety and maybe even hope for a cure, but their dreams and hopes were just utterly crushed.
"Man, Im going to get shit faced drunk again…" Daryl's voice rang out and everyone was shot back into reality of the situation at hand.
Rick tried everything to get Jenner to give him answers but there was just nothing. Then Dale spoke out about the strange count down clock on the wall behind everyone. Jenner took in a breath.
"The basement generators — they run out of fuel."
"And then?" Rick asked with worry and Jenner said nothing.
"Vi- What happens when the power runs out," Rick called out the the computer that had answered all the questions before.
"When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination occurs," The computer answered.
Josephine sat there, her whole body almost stone cold. This was it, she was done being afraid. She got up and just as fast, Daryl, Rick, T dog and Glenn shot out of the room and down into the basement where the generators were located.
Carol and Sophia came over to where Jacqui and Josephine were sitting and she heard Carol tell her little girl that everything would be okay. Josephine didn't even know how to calm down a child, how heartbreaking it was to see Carol so scared and still have to make everything seem okay. Josephine looked to her sister in law and nephew. They were hugging close and Lori was gently brushing his hair from his face. She had a horrible feeling about all of this decontamination bullshit. Something awful was about to happen and she could feel it.
She got up from the chair and walked to her tiny room, starting to pack and something felt strange. She looked around her quiet room, too quiet than it had been all night. She looked up at the ceiling at the vent in the wall and realized that no air was coming through. She jumped on the bed and stuck on of her hairs in the air to feel for air coming out of the vent. Nothing. Panic shot out of her and she grabbed her back pack, jumped off the bed and ran into the hall where everyone was standing
"No air is coming out of the vents," Yelled Dale. She was glad she wasn't the only one to notice this.
"The lights in our room are off too," stated Carol still clutching Sophia to her chest.
Jenner walked somberly down the hallway, not speaking a word to anyone, carrying a bottle of run in his hand. Josephine searched for Daryl, she didn't know why but she just did. He wasn't with the group so she ran towards Jenner asking him to answer the questions but he politely pushed her aside and kept walking.
Suddenly Daryl shot out from his room "Why is everything turnin' off, what the hell is going on?"
Suddenly Jenner spoke up, in a soft tone, utterly un phased. He told them that the building was shutting down, and the energy was being prioritized. Daryl ran up to him yelling at him to tell them what the hell was happening. Josephine clutched her backpack tightly in one hand and the other gently put a hand on her stomach and she began to rub her hand in circles telling herself mentally that everything would be fine and that they would just leave and never look back at this waste of a place.
She saw Daryl plummeting towards her and he grabbed her arm, the one clutching her back pack as if the make sure she kept the other one on her growing stomach. She pulled away from his hand and stood there, he gave her a concerned and some what angry look and still had his hand out, ready to grab her wrist again but instead she quickly took hold of his hand and gripped it tight. Daryl had no time to feel the embarrassment and awkward feeling that crept into his mind while he felt her small hand inside his he just yanked her through the halls.
"I always gotta be the one savin you, don't I?" He shouted at her as they walked through the halls into the big room. She expected him to let go of her hand when they entered the big round room again for the second time today, but instead he seemed to have gripped it tighter than before. Jenner said something about zone 5 shutting itself down.
"What do you mean, how can a building do anything?" Daryl questioned angrily at Jenner. He was still gripping Josephine's hand as the walked down the steps onto the first floor. Everything was happening so fast Jenner yelling and ramping about the french and fossil fuel. Suddenly Rick turned to the group and yelled at them all to grab their stuff and they were going to go.
Daryl let go of Josephine's hand pushing her back so she would listen to her brother but then the noise. The loud and horrible alarm beeping loud and everyone froze.
"WHATS GOING ON?" Shane yelled running up to Jenner and knocking him back a few steps. Daryl cam running up next to Shane, ready to pounce next.
Then the doors. The doors just shut. Glenn and Josephine ran to the door and tried to open it with the button and Glenn tried pushing it up with all his might.
"The door..its locked. He locked us in!" Glenn screamed to the group. Jenner yelled back about how important this building was and how there were things inside the CDC that could wipe out the entire country and suddenly it hit Josephine like a ton of bricks.
"This place is going to self destruct, is this place going to blow the hell up Rick?…." Her voice was soft and shaky as she looked to her brother with terror in her eyes. Everyone became silent for a second, taking in exactly what Josephine had stated.
"H.I.T's are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out." Jenner shared as the group looked at him with wide eyes and horrified expressions.
"H. I. T.'s?" Asked Rick, Josephine could hear the fear in his voice.
"Vi- define HIT," Jenner shouted at the computer system.
"H.I.T. - High Impulsive thermal fuel air explosion," Vi stated calmly over the intercom. She went into detail of what it entailed and everyone broke down.
Suddenly Carols cries shot out as Sophia ran into her arms, Josephine slid down the metal door where she was standing and cradled her legs to her chest. Everyone stood there shocked hugging each other and Dale stood with both hands on his head, his mind wrecked with confusion. Daryl wasted no time, screaming and hitting the wall, and Josephine cringed as the door behind her vibrated from the force of his ax hitting the other side of the door. Shane was next and she got up quickly in shock at everything that was going on.
"Get out of the way Jo!" Daryl shouted as she recoiled from her spot.
The next few moments everyone got their shit together after Shane started shooting all the computer screens, and Daryl lunged at Jenner with his ax.
"Test subject Ts-19, you knew them didn't you?" Josephine finally asked Jenner as there was a moment of silence.
"Yes, how did you know?" He looked to her.
"It's obvious, the way you talked about he or she or whoever, what was the relation between he two of you?" She sat down in front of him begging to answers. She was not always good with emotions and crap but he needed to show some or else the would have no way of getting out
"She was my wife," he stated sorrowfully. Josephine had him hooked lined and sinker'd. The years of psychology classes from college had finally paid off. She looked at him with sympathy. and he went on to talk about not having chances and not living like the people we loved and lost. Josephine's thoughts ran to Dean.
"My long time boyfriend, he was bit as well." She looked at him as he shot her a saddened look as if they had shared the common pain. "He and I were out on the road for a some time. He protected me very well, taught me things like how to fight and keep strong. He also was a righteous asshole but when all this happened he kept me safe and I owe him a lot for that," she sifted her eyes to Rick who was looking straight at her.
She continued. "He didn't even know I was pregnant when he died either. We split trying to find food in Atlanta in a stop and shop. I tried to be as quiet as I could and as fast as I possibly could be, but that wasn't enough. He must have reached up on a top shelf to grab me something and a walker grabbed his hand. My boyfriend, Dean, he was a big man, tall and muscular and when he pulled alway the walker came down with him. Right on top of him and bit right into his neck, then bit off his left cheek. I ran when I heard screams and I took a shovel that sliced the walker head right off its body. I hear Dean still screaming sometimes when I go to bed at night. I dream about how I just left him dead to turn into one of those things because I was too scared to face him and kill the only person I had left. I wish I had stayed there to die with him but I left, I ran for me and my baby because I wanted a chance to survive."
She could feel tears weld in her eyes, "The last thing he ever said to me was 'if something ever happens to me you better not look back, keep going and fighting' and I did because I want to see my baby, I want to hold it, and you are taking that chance away from me right now. You better open those damn doors so we can have a fighting chance, and we can have faith and hope. I need a chance to see Dean again in my babies eyes, and let him know I kept fighting."
Everyone was staring at her talk, hoping with all their mights that this would eventually get through to Jenner. And what surprised him was that he told them the way out. Without a word everyone kept running. Josephine didn't even think twice she just ran so fast for the opening door. She didn't even realize who was behind her because she was only looking for a way out. Rick, Lori, and Carl were all there, Daryl was there too, she just needed to keep moving and pray everyone else was behind her. When the glass had broken from the grenade everyone ran for their lives. Daryl had somehow managed to grab her hand again in the midst of it all and was practically dragging her across the field to the truck. They jumped in as everyone else took shelter in their own vehicles. She suddenly became overwhelmed with fear and let go of Daryl's hand and wrapped both hands around her stomach and closed her eyes and ducked her head, just waiting for the sound of the explosion..
And boy what a sound it was. She had made it out, made it out to keep fighting.
